Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 i Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Prepared by RAA Safety and Infrastructure 08 8202 4517 [email protected] RAA Government Relations and Public Policy [email protected] Disclaimer This report has been prepared by Royal Automobile Association of South Australia Incorporated (RAA) as at May 2021. By receiving this report, you acknowledge the following: • RAA is not responsible for any errors in or omissions from this report, whether arising out of negligence or otherwise. • RAA make no representation or warranty, express or implied that this report is accurate or is sufficient and appropriate for your purposes or contains all information that you may require. You must not rely on the information contained in this Report and RAA is not responsible to you or anyone else for any loss suffered or incurred if you rely on this Report. ii Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Contents Executive Summary iv RAA’s key recommendations for Victor Harbor Road v Notes viii Background 2 Discussion and survey analysis 4 2015-2019 casualty crash statistics 12 Infrastructure review 15 Summary of recommendations for Victor Harbor Road 37 iii Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Executive Summary RAA is South Australia’s largest member organisation, representing more than 770,000 South Australians – about half the state’s population. Our diverse motor, home and travel expertise means that we can help translate public policy into opportunity for South Australians and advocate for the things that matter. RAA’s advocacy efforts support the economic prosperity of South Australia, including its regions – recognising our role as an employer of more than 1,000 people across our state. Our advocacy is evidence-based: we consult and engage with industry, government and our members; and we use open-source data, research and technical field work to develop our recommendations. RAA has been a trusted advocate in transport and mobility developed over the last 118 years. We have also provided South Australians with travel services, ranging from holiday planning and bookings to travel insurance and international driving permits, for over 60 years. This means we have an expert understanding to provide unique insights into services and public policy settings to encourage improved transport, mobility planning and services and tourism infrastructure to help support and benefit our members and the broader South Australian community. RAA aligns its advocacy with the following three themes: • Safe – A safe system that not only achieves, but outperforms, national and international safety benchmarks. It encompasses safe people, using safe vehicles, on safe roads, at safe speeds. • Accessible – To have a cost efficient, convenient and reliable network that is accessible and inclusive, as an essential part of personal mobility. • Sustainable - Encompasses the needs of current and future generations, and considers financial, societal and environmental factors. Through member and broader community feedback received as part of our Fleurieu Peninsula regional road assessment, Victor Harbor Road has been identified as the most concerning piece of transport infrastructure in the Fleurieu Peninsula Region. Victor Harbor Road is critical to movement through the Fleurieu Peninsula and is highly important to both freight and tourism in addition to its thousands of daily users. The methodology used to produce this report involved surveying residents of the Fleurieu Peninsula and analysing their feedback prior to undertaking several days of field work to assess and review the issues raised. RAA also consulted with local councils to discuss issues raised throughout the community survey, including Victor Harbor Road. The findings and subsequent recommendations from this field work are presented throughout this report along with a review of open-source crash and traffic volume data. RAA has outlined a series of recommendations aimed at improving safety on Victor Harbor Road now, and into the future. iv Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 RAA’s key recommendations for Victor Harbor Road v Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 vi Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 vii Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Notes Notes on crash data Unless otherwise specified, crash data quoted within this report is sourced from the Road Crash Data dataset uploaded by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport on the Data SA website. Crash data is for the five year period between 2015 and 2019 (unless otherwise specified) because it is the most recent data available at the time of publishing this report. Casualty crashes are defined as a crash where at least one person is injured or killed as a result of the crash. Property damage only crashes are not considered in crash data analysis within this report unless explicitly specified. Units within the road crash database include animals and objects, but for the purpose of analysing the units involved in crashes, only human controlled units are considered unless otherwise specified. Casualty crashes per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled (vkt) have been calculated for various roads and road sections throughout this report for comparative purposes. The calculation for vehicle kilometres travelled is vkt = AADT x length of road and can be considered the approximate number of kilometres travelled by vehicles on that particular section of road. Crashes per 100m vkt allows for a comparison of historic crash risk across different road sections. Notes on star ratings Throughout this regional road assessment, AusRAP star ratings are provided for sections of Victor Harbor Road. The AusRAP star rating system, a subsidiary of the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP), assesses several key criteria to establish the safety rating of a road from one to five stars with the latter representing the safest. Star ratings have been provided for discrete sites on Victor Harbor Road that are typical of the overall road or to highlight certain deficiencies. These ratings have been calculated using the iRAP ‘ViDA’ demonstrator tool. AusRAP star ratings are based on the international iRAP model which estimates an average 40% reduction in fatal and serious crashes for each incremental increase in star rating1. Table 1: Estimated reduction in fatalities and serious injuries with increases in AusRAP star rating (iRAP, 2020). Relative proportion of fatalities Star rating and serious injuries 1 1 2 0.6 3 0.36 4 0.216 5 0.1296 RAA advocates for all regional highways to be rated a minimum of three stars to reduce the number of lives lost and serious injuries on South Australian roads. Our recent submission to the state road safety strategy to 2031 recommends firstly that these ratings are released publicly, and secondly, they are used as a tool to identify and justify safety upgrades across South Australia’s regional road network to achieve a three star rating or better on all state highways. 1 iRAP, 2020, The Business Case for Safer Roads, <https://www.vaccinesforroads.org/business-case-for-safer-roads/>. viii Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Notes on recommendation colour scales Recommendations throughout this report are ranked using a priority colour scale as depicted below. The primary factors considered when prioritising recommendations are the importance to survey respondents, road safety, traffic volumes and importance to tourism and industry in the region. However, not all these factors may contribute to a given priority. Timeframes mentioned below are a general guide to prioritise investment only and may not be applicable to every recommendation within this report. High priority recommendation This issue is of very high importance to the local community, has significant implications to road safety, is located on a busy road corridor and is important to tourism and industry in the region. These recommendations should be committed to within 12 months. Mid-high priority recommendation This issue is of high importance to the local community, has implications to road safety, is generally located on a busy road corridor and can be important to tourism and industry in the region. These recommendations should be committed to within 3 years or as part of routine maintenance. Mid priority recommendation This issue is moderately important to the local community, has some road safety implications and may be important to tourism and industry in the region. These recommendations should be committed to within 5 years or as part of routine maintenance. Mid-low priority recommendation This issue has been raised by the local community, may have some road safety implications or be important to tourism and industry in the region. These recommendations should be implemented as part of routine maintenance, or as part of a longer-term vision. Low priority recommendation This issue may have road safety implications or has some level of importance to tourism and industry in the region. These recommendations should be implemented as part of routine maintenance, rolled out gradually or as part of a longer-term vision. ix Highway Assessment – Victor Harbor Road – May 2021 Background RAA’s Safety and Infrastructure team systematically evaluates the state’s regional road network through our Regional Road Assessment Program. As part of the current Fleurieu Peninsula regional road assessment, an online survey containing